Templar: Not exactly a compliment.

Atlas Shrugged has the dubious honor of being one of about four books I've never bothered to finish. It was boring, tried to shove its politics down my throat, and by over a third of the way into it I still didn't have the foggiest what was going on. So I quit reading.

"Ayn Rand made me hate reading!" My best friend said that when I asked him why he hated Ayn Rand so much, that and, "Anyone who reads an Ann Rand book well be a jerk for at least a week." I was kind of confused at his overwhelming contempt. I thought she must have kicked him when he was little or something, then stole his bike. ^_^

I'd wear it everywhere! :D

There's no laws against wearing T-shirts with bad language, after all.

Okay, maybe not EVERYWHERE. I wouldn't wear it to church, if I went, and I wouldn't wear it if I went somewhere I knew there were going to be a bunch of kids. Which I try very hard not to do, if I can help it.

If you need something else to break up the Rand (there's only so much selfishness-as-enlightenment I can take, personally), I just finished Myke Bartlett's "How To Disappear Completely" from Podiobooks. Reminds me of a cross of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books. Lotsa adventure, a less than linear plot, and read in an enjoyable English accent.

And if I get enough saved up by my birthday, maybe I'll be able to get Templar in paper...

Atlas Shrugged is the best book I ever completely detested by the time I was done with it. As Shahanna said, there's the constant shoving of Rand's politics, such as the total intellectual dismissal of ordinary, everyday human compassion. Any character who needs any kind of help, ever, is automatically a weak and entirely worthless human being. Fortunately, none of the totally self-sufficient protagonists ever gets in a plane crash and needs to depend on other people for food, shelter, and care for their injuries. Oh wait, one does. But, see, the character completely recovers from terrible injuries (in what I recall to be a matter of weeks, not months or years) and insists on paying back what is owed, so it's all good, minus the hurt pride, I guess. For a book as painstakingly thought-out as this, that tossed-off plot point struck me as incredibly lazy and disingenuous. And it's not the only one, just the one that pissed me off the most.

I may or may not have been a jerk for a week, but it would have been because I was muttering under my breath and mentally cursing Ayn Rand, with a grumpy black cloud hanging over my head a la Ziggy.

HOWEVER. I felt it was worth reading, if for nothing more than a viewpoint different from my own, and have been considering taking it on again now, years later, as there seem to be some pretty scary parallels between the slow collapse of government in the book (due to total incompetence) and certain contemporary events. I just dunno if I want to wade through the radio address again.

I'd wear it to the gym. Because they all either hate my fat ass or just don't care anyway.

To answer your question: everywhere. All the time. Neverending.

I'd wear it to the sex shop, duh. That would be my dildo-buying shirt.

When I was 16 I dug myself in a deep hole by agreeing to write a 10 page paper on Atlas Shrugged, then put off reading the book until the week before the paper was due.

I ended up reading the entire thing in 3 days.

I honestly can't put into words how much I loath that book. Having to exsist in a world of nothing but it for three days is a lot what I expect hell would be like if it exsisted.

Where wouldn't one wear such a T-shirt?

Weddings, court appearances, child custody hearings... Any time's a good time to let the cock of science fuck you.

Personally, I'd pair it with a labcoat, and head to the singles bars.

I really liked Atlas Shrugged. I kinda skipped the 30 page speach where she restates everything that she has been talking about through out the entire book, JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE THAT THERE IS SOME DEEP PHILOSOPHICAL MELODRAMA GOING ON, but other than that, I liked it. Rand's got a great writing style and charaterizes like whoa. Her plots are also good. She's just, y'know, crazy in the outlook. Still worth the read.

Shame im not still at uni, that would have gone down quite well with most of the people i knew (Computer course)

Failing that it could be worn to goth and fetish clubs

actually, atlas shrugged is probably one of my favorite books. (though I too skipped the thirty page monologue).

no joke.

I could never read Atlas Shrugged.
In highschool I finished the Fountainhead and as the above have mentioned, it made me a raging asshole for about a year.

Ayn Rand is *perfect* for the self-obsessed and contemptuous teenager who is (in her opinion) smarter than her peers. Objectivism gives people a guilt-free ideology to enjoy their elitism with. Oh, if I could go back and spare my friends and family from my egoist senior year... *sigh*

Relatedly, I could totally see a Templar subculture devoted to Rand...

I read Atlas Shrugged in high school so I could apply for an Ayn Rand Foundation scholarship, which I didn't receive.

My only question...WHY WOULD OBJECTIVISTS GIVE SCHOLARSHIPS?

... An Ayn Rand scholarship? Isn't that a bit like the president of an anarchy club?

Personally, I would wear the LET THE COCK OF SCIENCE FUCK YOU shirt around the house.

Though, it would be funny if on the back of the shirt it said "I have a cunt of science in the back." You know, for confusing hilarity.

Be sure to read Bob The Angry Flower's sequel, Atlas Shrugged II, One Hour Later:

http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif

Where to wear such a shirt...

I don't know, but I would love to find out. Because I am at the moment wearing the most comfortable shirt I own. It says BEAVER HUNTER on the front.

I have yet to figure out where I can wear it other than at home while surfing the intarwebs, but I like having it.

I go to college. I'd wear it everywhere.

Also. I liked Anthem. I nearly cried from frustration halfway through The Fountainhead. I haven't touched it in a year. Oh well. I'm gonna go read some more historical fiction about Anne Boleyn.

I would wear the t-shirt just about everywhere. Of course, not all of your demograph goes (or, went, in my case) to RHPS for several years. It would be welcome there.

You could make a killing on this shirt at cons. I'm telling you, people would buy this shirt.

...Oh yeah. Tried to read the Fountainhead. Could not get through it because I had no idea what was going on. Same with Atlas Shrugged. To be fair both of these books were heavy reading in 9th grader.

Science t-shirt was cruel. I laughed a lot

i liked Atlas Shrugged as well, but then i took the audiobook route also AND it was during a 16-hour road trip, so maybe i had to. maybe because it coincided with some pretty stunning scenery (courtesy of Highway 301), i managed to avoid the dreaded assholery that often results. i did read (not audiobook'd) The Fountainhead recently and for actual reading, that one's much more enjoyable. shorter and not nearly so self-righteous (tho, still, it's RAND. self-righteousness abounds).

i actually really liked Atlas Shrugged. I really looked at it like a superhero story, where a few gifted individuals attempt to change the world.

I liked Atlas Shrugged all right as a 15 year old. I was a smart kid stuck in the hinterlands and enjoyed the whole "too smart for his own good" thread. A few years later, though, I finally got what the book was supposed to be about and was horrified.

And then there's the eroticized rape stuff. Cause, you know, he *knows* what she *wants*. He's a genius. And they get to f**k whoever they damn well please.

In the first panel, Raygun has a brand new cigarette/cigarillo.

In the bottom left panel, it's half smoked.

In the bottom right panel, it's brand new again.

She's either a chain smoker and is lighting up when we can't see her doing it, or her cigarettes are MAGIC.

I'm inclined to believe the latter.

My girlfriend wants a "Cock of Science" shirt. Please make them! By the way, college classes make a perfect place to wear one.

Will there be a picture of the box of said "Science Cock " on the shirt?
Perhaps with more details.. I could answer better. ^_^

I point out that she said yes. But yeah, Rand had some issues, or possibly just fetishes, when it came to sexuality. (Fountainhead was a bit worse on that account).

It's one of my favorite books despite the fairly naive politics (I have an essay somewhere on why pure libertarianism can't work in a post-industrial society). I've read it 3 or 4 times now.

Oh, and I'd want the cock of science T-shirt just in case I ever really felt the need to be fired.

Ah, yes, KC thanks for pointing that out. I do believe I was thinking of Fountainhead after all!

I would wear it, but like Cylver said:

"Personally, I'd pair it with a labcoat, and head to the singles bars."

Except I'd wear the combo EVERYWHERE.

…Hmm. My wife may object to that…

I'd wear it to cons and be the MOST POPULAR GIRL OF THE FUCKING PROM. Ohhhhhh yeah. Unf unf unf.

And clubs... and Pennsic... and concerts... yeah, pretty much anywhere my parents aren't.

Atlas Shrugged suffers a bit from the novel-treatise format, because the philosophy slows the plot, while still being glossed over in a way that leads to the HURR SELFISHNESS IS BAD RAND SUCKS HURR idiocy (which isn't to say orthodox Objectivism doesn't have issues).

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